


Blue

by idleteen



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mindless Fluff, smiling niall, ziall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 05:14:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/858205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idleteen/pseuds/idleteen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was something about Niall that felt like coming home from that very first minute Zayn laid eyes on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Zayn and Niall on a fishing boat because I like the idea of Niall being a spectacular colour of blue. Posted because my sister has the same idea.

Zayn was tired of blue. He was sick of waking up at 5 am and being surrounded by the dreadful colour until well into the night. When he laid awake in his bed, as the soft rocking of the boat quietly lulled him to sleep, he could imagine a place where everything was painted in vibrant reds and yellows, without a fleck of blue anywhere. A place where the sun was always setting, and the ocean reflected the beautiful gold of the sky. He dreamed of this place when he missed home, which was often; where home was, Zayn really didn’t know, but when he closed his eyes he could picture such a vibrant image of gold that he decided his home must be a sandy desert, or a morning cloud.

Zayn would often find himself day dreaming about this place when he was doing his morning jobs; untangling the trawl lines and securing ropes to the side of the large fishing vessel just couldn’t keep his mind occupied lately. When he took his lunch break, he would grab whatever was being served, and head to his tiny room, smoking a cigarette and watching the embers burn with a quiet appreciation. 

It was a tuesday, if Zayn remembered correctly, that they asked him to show the new boy how to tie a knot properly. Zayn gave only a nod in reply, continuing to keep to himself as much as possible. The boy didn’t approach him, only looked at him with nervous eyes; nervous blue eyes, Zayn noticed. 

Zayn looked over the smaller boy, noticing his blond hair, and slightly below average height. He felt familiar to Zayn, although he was sure he had never seen this boy before in his life. The boy in question fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze, and it wasn’t until the blond cleared his throat that Zayn realized he had been staring longer than what was polite. Zayn spoke then, for what felt like the first time in years.

“You got a name?” the volume of his voice shocked himself and made the small boy flinch, Zayn felt guilty for scaring him, and wanted to apologize, but shook that thought out of his head; he wouldn’t apologize to any of the other men, what made this kid special? The boy stared at Zayn, his intense eyes an odd shade of blue he wasn’t familiar with.

“Well Blue eyes? What about that name?” Zayn asked after a moment had passed without an answer. 

“It’s Niall…sir,” he spoke in a shaky Irish accent, speaking just above a whisper. Zayn chuckled at his response;

“You can call me Zayn, blue eyes.” Niall smiled a little with the new information, and slowly approached Zayn, squatting down next to the darker boy in order to watch his hands. Zayn picked up a long length of rope, weighing it in his hand, holding it up to show the younger boy; Niall looked over the rope with somewhat intense concentration, making Zayn chuckle. 

“Doing this will become second nature to you soon enough,” Zayn told Niall, looping the rope around itself, Niall never looked away from Zayn’s hands. He was watching Zayn the way Zayn watched the sunset, or the glowing end of his cigarette; completely absorbed. 

Zayn finished the knot and handed it to Niall, the boy finally looked up to meet his eyes;

“Second nature, huh?” Zayn smiled at the doubt in his voice. He watched the blue eyed boy run his fingers through his messy hair and couldn’t help but notice the way the sun hit him, his blond head looked gold and his pale skin was bright. Zayn knew he would lose that pale skin after a few weeks in the sun, but he couldn’t help but wish he wouldn’t. 

“Are you hungry, blue eyes?” Zayn also noticed how thin Niall was, which wasn’t very surprising, working on a fishing boat was usually a last ditch effort to scrape together enough money to make it through the winter. If this small, pale boy was resorting to such an extreme measure things must be pretty tight at home. 

“Starving,” Niall smiled, his smile lit up his entire face in an all new kind of wonderful and Zayn was wondering if he had ever seen anything like it before. He decided not, and pulled the boy with him to the big room where all the men ate. Zayn sat with Niall at one of the small tables in the corner, the rest of the men shot him somewhat strange looks, knowing this was the first time he had ever willingly joined them for a meal, but Zayn didn’t care, because blue eyes was smiling while he told Zayn stories. He hoped that light in his face didn’t diminish when the sun tanned his skin and his fingers became calloused and rough. There was something about Niall that felt like coming home from that very first minute Zayn laid eyes on him. 

Zayn liked home if this is what it looked like. 

+  
҉  
Weeks went by and the blue eyed boy’s skin tanned and tying knots became easy to him, but whenever Zayn approached him, his face still lit up like a Christmas tree and Zayn was sure that nothing as small as the sun or a never ending blue view could ever stop that smile.

After 4 weeks of eating lunch with the other men, Zayn brought Niall to his tiny room where he usually ate and told him all about the way he saw everything in colours. Niall watched in fascination as the brown eyed boy illustrated everything he saw with his hands. Zayn was surprised when Niall asked him what colour Zayn saw him as. He sat quietly for a minute, deciding what one colour described this boy whose very being was a shining example of the most diversely coloured painting in the world. After intense pondering Zayn realized there was really only one colour that could properly describe the way he saw him.

“Blue,” he told the blond, for once Zayn wasn’t sick of the colour being the only thing he could see.   
҉  
When two months had passed one of the men on the boat made Zayn incredibly angry. Niall had nearly been in tears when Zayn turned the corner; one of the larger men on the ship was screaming at the small boy about a crate that he had dropped. Zayn looked at the crate that was nearly the size of his blue eyed boy and walked right up the man telling him not so politely to shove off. Niall stood behind him slightly with wide eyes as the man stood in shock. Zayn clearly hadn’t made a good impression but he didn’t care, because this man had erased Niall’s smile and that was unacceptable. 

Zayn barely felt the punch when it landed on his face, but he could feel Niall’s choked yell from somewhere deep inside of him as he fell to the ground. He could hear Niall calling his name and Zayn could almost see the tears that would be streaming down his face. Niall didn’t like violence, Niall didn’t like fights, or harsh words, Niall didn’t care for the dark, or the way no one was really a good person. Zayn wanted so badly to prove him wrong as he stood up from the deck of the ship. He could feel blood trickling from his nose and his cheek already felt bruised, but Zayn didn’t retaliate. Because Niall was beside him and his blue eyes had tears forming and Zayn would not prove him right; not everyone was a bad person. Zayn looked back at the man and told him if he ever said anything to Niall again he would be sure to return the favour. 

Niall stopped crying as Zayn lead him to his room, but he didn’t smile again all night, and it broke Zayn’s heart.   
҉  
+

The last week of the season Zayn told Niall. 

They were sitting on his bed, eating their cold lunch, while Niall spoke longingly of Ireland, and Zayn stopped watching his cigarette because he was more interested in watching _him_. Blue eyes watched Zayn as he watched them and he knew that this was as close to heaven as he was ever going to get. Zayn kissed Niall then and it wasn’t a surprise because Niall was Zayn’s everything, and Niall’s hands never got calloused and his skin tanned but it just made his hair look even more gold. Niall’s lips were soft and Zayn could feel him smiling against him and Zayn knew that this was it. He knew that when he closed his eyes all those months ago he was seeing the gold of Niall’s hair, and the red of his lips, and that even his blue eyes were there somewhere. 

Niall asked Zayn to come home with him. He said he already had.


End file.
